Well, to be realistic, this is a big bump religious folk have to overcome to be OK with losing their faith. And even those of us who would not believe no matter what must struggle with the reality that this is all there is, it often sucks, and our lives are a blip in time. Yes, yes, all that great stuff Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss like to talk about re the awesomeness of the real universe, but appreciating our lives as much as we can doesn’t change that other unpleasant stuff.

If atheists could come up with a really good reason to not find the fleetingness of our existence depressing and scary, it would help us immensely to stamp out dangerous religious dogma. It should not depress Prof. CC(E) that he is the bad cop, though; no one else has come up with a good enough answer either.

Kittens. Chocolate. A good book. Owning a dog. Falling in love. Growing old together. Having kids. Playing with the grandkids. Learning. Wondering.
I could go on.
None of this is exclusively ‘ours’, of course, but they are real.

Exactly the things that make us real miserable to realize we’ll be leaving them behind.
Who was it who said, “It doesn’t bother me that I have to leave the party… it’s that the party continues on without me!”

That time Jerry Coyne said “Once you die the world will quickly forget you and all of your actions will have amounted to nothing. It would be no different than if you killed yourself now.”

I could count on one hand the number of critiques I have seen of “the new atheist types” that were not blatant straw men.

And isn’t existentialism the idea that life has no meaning and is pure absurdity unless you create meaning out of thin air? Aren’t we the one’s saying that nature has given us abundant meaning in the form of evolved feelings, emotions and desires?

I think I’m going to go into the strawman slaying business. It’s like being a driftwood artist. It’s too easy and people actually buy that shit!

Rather than listen to (reality) the perp is taking the easy way out. Jail time. (Duality)
… killed my soul off sometime ago so i would never fess up.
It is probably on the cards that when dualist hear about non free will, our non special place in the universe, they hear it like the cold hard delivery of bad cop, the truth can be tough as we all know. Let it bleed.

If it’s so important to you to be remembered after you die, then your ego is making you unhappy.
It’s the premises that religion sets that are more likely to make you miserable. If you have no expectations, then every experience is amazing and life is an adventure.

This “problem” came about with development of intelligence in human beings,the ability to question reality and make up stories to create meaning. I doubt that all other life forms on this planet worry about longevity, meaning and hereafters. Our intelligent brains create meaning for each of us that differs from person to person unless we have been rigidly acculturated. Enjoy the party. I’m glad to have been invited. I was born with severe asthma that I was fortunate enough to outgrow when my parents moved to a better climate. I consider that most of my life has been a gift.

What’s to be sad about. The “bad cop” is well spoken and dresses quite flash, don’t you think? I would think you would be flattered. Geeky intellectual transforms into fey bad cop. I’d have my agent trying to get me that role!